Alcalá View 1997 13.11

If the Hat Fits, Te Wears It By Jill Wagner

Benefits Brief

Effective July 1, 1997, Health Net has agreed to charge $1 O for any brand- name medication (formulary or not) obtained from a par- ticipating pharmacy. Mail order purchases will also cost $10. (As you recall, the non-formulary brand name co-payment was originally $30.) The co-payment for generic medications remains the same at $5. Health Net also has agreed to reimburse anyone who obtained a non-formula- ry medication since January, the difference between the original $30 co-payment and the $10 co-payment des- cribed above. HN will notify members directly about their eligibility for a refund based on HN pharmacy records. In addition, prescriptions written by any licensed physi- cian may be obtained from a HN pharmacy for the same co-payment as those issued by an HN network physician, effective July 1. Originally, prescription benefits were only available through net- work physicians. Be Advised. If you elect a brand-name prescription when a generic is available, you will pay $1Oplus the difference in the cost between the generic and brand name. This option remains unchanged. Reminder. Part-time stu- dents must submit their fall tuition remission application forms to Human Resources 10 days before the first day of class. Summer isn't over yet! Physicians strongly recom- mend using a "broad-spec- trum" sunscreen that protects against UVB and UVA radia- tion. The higher the Sun Protection Factor (SPF), the better the protection. Using a cream, oil or lotion is a mat- ter of personal choice, but keep in mind that most oils do not contain sufficient amounts of sunscreen, and gels tend to wear off faster. - Vicki Coscia

The doorway is labeled "Residence Life and Dining Services." Just inside on the right is an information desk with a flourish- ing plant and a nameplate that reads, Therese Thiessen. Ah ha, so this is where USD's 1997 Employee of the Year spends her workday. Te, as she is known to fami ly and co-workers alike, can be found downstairs in the east hallway of the Hahn University Center. But unless it's the first two weeks of the fall semester, don't expect to find Thiessen at the front desk. As meal plan coordinator and executive assistant in Dining Services, Thiessen sets up accounts for hundreds of new students each year. Once that crunch is over, it's likely you'll find her at a PC workstation in the office behind the foyer desk. There she monitors the computer system that cash reg- isters in Main Dining, The Marketplace, Traditions, Aromas, the Faculty/Staff Dining Room and Domino's Pizza are hooked into. With one phone call from a worker upstairs, Thiessen can immediately correct a mischarge on a student's meal plan or an emp loyee's cash plus account. If the power goes out or it's a Monday morning, check the office next door where the sizable Diebold System hardware is housed. Thiessen will be in there rebooting the system or checking that all ran smoothly over the weekend. The Diebold System, Thiessen explains, stores nearly 10,000 accounts for meal plans, cash plus and laser printing charges assessed in the student computer labs. Then there's always the office across the lobby where a Macintosh computer sits waiting for Thiessen. She uses the Mac to lay out brochures and fliers advertising spe- cials or explaining meal plan options. The projects are endless, really, for the person who is considered by her dining services col- leagues to be the department computer expert. "I feel like a technician some days," Thiessen says, "a data entry person the next, and a cash-handler at other times. I wear a lot of different hats in this office." On one recent morning Thiessen's desk was filled with sample labels that she designed for the storeroom to clearly mark the food kept on each shelf. Once the

This workstation is the hub from where Te Thiessen does much of her work . design is perfected, Thiessen will pass on the template to the storeroom manager to make any labe l he needs. It's these requests that keep Thiessen hopping and make each day at work different. And how different these days are from 20 years ago, when Thiessen joined the staff. She had an office just off the kitchen in Sacred Heart Hall and kept track of stu- dents eating in the dining hall by a hand- written list. Now, one swipe of an electroni- cally encoded ID card handles the tracking of campus diners so Thiessen can be doing any number of other tasks, including design- ing the dining services Web site. The self-taught Web page creator beams when she relates the story of a mom calling from Connecticut after viewing the dining services site on the Internet. It's a story that points to Thiessen's wide-ranging duties. Not only is she a technical wizard, but daily she works in person or over the phone with students, parents, dining services managers and other campus emp loyees. Judging by the reaction from hundreds of employees on hand when the award winner was announced at the June emp loyee picnic, Te's wizardry is appreciated across Alcala Park.